Lady Macbeth

Lady Macbeth

1. Immediately presented as ambitious and determined for Macbeth to become king

   • The portrayal of Lady Macbeth challenges gender roles and assumptions made about women in the Jacobean Era
   • Lady Macbeth: "Unsex me here (1.5) "take my milk for gall" (1.5)

2. She rejects her own femininity and all associated tenderness

   • Some stage versions of Macbeth even depict Lady Macbeth as being pregnant to further intensify the rejection of her femininity
   • Lady Macbeth: "Dashed the brains out!" (1.7) "Make thick my blood/ stop up the passage to remorse" (1.7)

3. Her use of language (imperatives, threats and mockery) in Act 1 and 2 is particularly effective as she challenges Macbeth's masculinity to manipulate him

   • She contrasts to King Henry's wives- she refuses to be controlled and, instead of being forced into pregnancy to birth and heir, refuses her maternal duty.
   • Lady Macbeth: "when you durst do it, then you were a man" (1.7) "screw your courage to the sticking place and we'll not fail" (1.7)

4. Her confidence in reassuring her husband over the removal of the blood from their hands is ironic due to this being the central cause of her later decent into madness

   • This seems to be Shakespeare's effort to show the corruption that is brought about by the power of the supernatural and would be a pleasing image to James I as it would conform to his eda of the punishment of evil supernatural deeds
   • Lady Macbeth: "a little water will clear us of the deed" (2.2) "consider it not so deeply" (2.2)